Alarm bells over unguarded border

Statesman News Service | June 22, 2013 12:12 pm

pritesh basu
KOLKATA, 12 JUNE: Maoists might use the unguarded Odisha-West Bengal border as an escape route after attacking political leaders in the state. Sources said the state intelligence branch has recently given intimation in this regard to the state home department.
Some time back, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) had alerted the state government to tighten up the security arrangement for senior political leaders, including chief minister Miss Mamata Banerjee after the Maoist attack in Chhattisgarh, in which several Congress leaders were killed.
Areas in Nayagram, Sankrail, Beliabera and Gopiballavpur in West Midnapore, bordering Mayurbhanj district in Odisha were considered highly Maoist-dominated; Maoist regional commandant Ranjan Munda was arrested from Mayurbhanj in 2012. Around four companies of the joint forces were earlier posted to guard the border area. They were relocated after the change of guard at Writers’ Building. The move had been taken on the grounds that the areas have become free from Maoist activities.
The entire 34 companies of the joint forces that include 31 companies of CRPF and three Nagaland Indian Reserve Battalion units were deployed in the rest of the Maoist-dominated areas in the state.
The intelligence branch, however, has information that top Maoist leaders often sneak into the state to restructure their organisation.
Another section of top Maoists leaders are also entering the state through Jharkhand.
The intelligence bureau also came to know that Kundan Pahan, a senior member of the Central Military Commission of the Maoists and the special zonal committee, had visited a village at Ayodhya hills in Purulia in the last week of May.
This is the first time since Kishenji’s death that top Maoists leaders like Kundan have once again started visiting various places in Purulia. He had sneaked in through Jharkhand and his main motive is to reorganise the People’s Liberation Guerrilla Army (PLGA), the armed wing of the Maoists, in Bengal.